Sir James Dyson: Britain needs to copy the French and love its engineers
Sir James Dyson says the Government needs to invest in future inventors and engineers if we're to compete with China and India.

Sir James Dyson wants to encourage young inventors like Kevin Scott, who created this folding bike for easy locking. Photo: Tony Kyriacou, Rex Features

ALL change. Actually, I'm encouraged. Governments should take tough decisions (far better than no decision at all). It's galvanising. So Michael Gove's recent tough plans for education, though understandably unpopular in some quarters, make hard sense.

Across the board we need cuts in spending and cuts in bureaucracy. We do need more rigorous exams - though I find the endless, belittling of "easy" exams tedious. Why knock young achievers? And yes, let's review the curriculum - some children may benefit from a focus on "traditional" academic subjects.

But as well as austere reform, we must plan for the future and invest. It can't be all three Rs and rote learning. What kind of children do we want? Resilient, resourceful people who forge their own paths, or those who work by the book?

There's a reason I employ young, inexperienced people. They haven't learnt it all by heart. They're not institutionalised.Engineering requires free-thinkers â€“ and there's one subject ideally placed to develop them. My favourite subject. Or, what would have been my favourite subject had it been taught when I was at school: design and technology.

It was a Conservative government that introduced D&T in 1989 â€“ as the first D&T curriculum in the world. And we're still the world leader.

Something to be proud of, it's not the O-level woodwork of yesteryear with wonky letter holders and toast racks. It's the opportunity for children to be creative and logical. To use their hands and brains. It's vocational (let's not be snobby, everyone needs a vocation), artistic and academic. There's science (electronics), and maths (geometry) in it. You can't design out of a textbook. Often it's a shot in the dark. You have to try, and you have to fail. It's about solving problems and creating things that work beautifully. And it's exhilarating when you get it right. No wonder it's one of the most popular subjects on the curriculum.

My foundation works with schools and I've seen young people create astonishing inventions. Take 18-year-old James Popper, who recently won a national prize for science for his CookerSmart. It detects fire by infrared instead of smoke, limiting the annoying slamming-doors-and-opening-windows-whilst-cooking-sausages ritual.

It's impressive.

As we review our curriculum, the French are embracing the subject, having recently introduced "Creativity and Innovation Technology". A more glamorous moniker, perhaps, but it builds upon their high esteem for engineers.

France is more than azure seas and vineyards â€“ it's incredible, expansive bridges and forward-thinking nuclear power. They've got guts and take difficult decisions. They might not always get it perfectly right, but quick commitment to large infrastructure projects (without the trademarked British dither) inspires the public.

And us: 30 years on and we're still wide-eyed at their TGV trains. By 2012, the French will have 56 working nuclear power plants â€“ generating 76pc of France's energy. And the French are proud of them â€“ not a Not-In-My-Back-Yard in sight. Perhaps I should have built my engineering school in France.

We've a great deal of latent talent in Britain, but we've lost our edge. Our science exams are too easy. Our children should be free to experiment, not be mollycoddled with the red tape of health and safety. They have brilliant, enquiring and open minds which become engrossed in creating and making.

The problem? Our engineers are invisible. Like France, we should revere those individuals who make our lives comfortable - even possible - and those who will solve our massive energy and environment challenges.

Sadly 32pc of teenage girls want to be models. And many young people are still lured by the media, somehow viewing it to be more creative than actually making things. Is career advice growing with the times and needs of the nation? I'm certainly not convinced careers advisers know enough about science and engineering. My only hope is that it's evolved since the 1960s. My adviser, with his handle-bar moustache hinting at a military past, noted my interests â€“ running, sailing and rugby â€“ and surmised that I'd like an "outdoor" career: an estate agent. I've never been good at taking advice.

The point is that young people do need guidance. The finished article â€“ a space shuttle, suspension bridge or electric car â€“ may inspire, but the story behind their development, the people involved, the challenges solved, needs to be told.

D&T will give us engineers. Coupled with maths and science, we'll get the logical, academic and creative thinkers, the polymaths, we need. And we do need more of them. Here in Wiltshire we're doubling our engineering team to 700â€¦ if we can find them. More bright graduates will develop more new technology for us to export â€“ staving off competition from China and India, and reducing our deficit.

So, let's make cuts. But let's invest too, sowing seeds that will deliver the people and projects we'll so desperately need in the not so distant future.
Sir James Dyson, an industrial designer, is best known as the inventor of the eponymous vacuum cleaner.

The man he has a point! Good article - particularly like his theory of taking inexperienced graduates who haven't been told what you can and can't do yet! In my experience, industry is never quite as open and exiting as the course you did to get here!

One teeny little point would be the nuclear power arguement -are dyson working on a way to treat and make safe all of the radioactive waste from this fleet of power stations? Forgive me if i'm wrong, but isn't the UK the largest user of offshore windfarms? Now that I can get behind - yes the concrete foundations give off a hell of a lot of CO2, but i thought i saw a concept for a floating wind turbine? Wave power and tidal power should also be explored more (i'm sure they already are) where natural habbitats aren't screwed up.

I'd like to see dyson use his admitedly brilliant design team to design something brilliantly world changing for the UK along those lines. Bladeless fans are great, and i still get an unhealthy enjoyment from watching people waggle their hands in and out of the Blade hand dryers to little effect (10 seconds people - nice and slow!).

A little off topic maybe, so to sum up. Nice article, completely agree (although there is something much cooler about being part of an unknown minority!), and i look forward to Dyson solving the worlds energy crisis!

I have a friend who studies Power Technology at Nottingham University. According to him, the amount of things people are unaware is scary. Ignorance is the worst thing in our society... At the moment, I'm researching about this course and looking forward to start asap. Their installations are outstanding! Engineering should be more appreciated and is the future in many aspects, specially for our salvation...